A350 Deliveries and Routes

[leops1984]

SMB has been showing up intermittently on Flightradar24 with its Airbus test registry, but only for ground tests. Decent chance of first flight soon.

[worldrally]

Had a pleasant surprise this evening when I received emails notifying me of different seat allocation due to aircraft change to A350 for SQ 950 and SQ 953 next week! Now am looking forward to the early morning flights!

[SQKevin]

From Niner Victor Facebook page:

Singapore Airlines will commence A350 crew training flights to Jakarta this Wednesday (30 Mar).

A359 will operate daily on SQ950/953 and SQ958/959.

SQ106/107 to KUL will revert to A333, while SQ118/119 will remain operated by A359.

A350 crew training flights to KUL/CGK are planned to operate until 8 May, before the start of A350 services to AMS.

[bent]

From Niner Victor Facebook page:

Singapore Airlines will commence A350 crew training flights to Jakarta this Wednesday (30 Mar).

A359 will operate daily on SQ950/953 and SQ958/959.

SQ106/107 to KUL will revert to A333, while SQ118/119 will remain operated by A359.

A350 crew training flights to KUL/CGK are planned to operate until 8 May, before the start of A350 services to AMS.

aircraft type not updated on SIA website yet though - i did a dummy search

[Dobbo]

Any news/rumours on when the next route announcements will be?

[quinjoe]

A350 will be deployed as
SQ950/953 and
SQ118/119 wed 30Mar to 08May daily and
SQ958/959 wef 01Apr to 01May on DOP 12567.

from insider

[SQ228]

At this point the A350 still has no 'official' scheduling- it just fills in for A330s in a systematic way. Even the most recent PDF timetable doesn't acknowledge its existence between now and mid-May.

[bent]

aircraft type not updated on SIA website yet though - i did a dummy search

ooh, the aircraft type has been updated when making a booking on the website

[CarbonMan]

The word is that the 359 has so far given them "better than 25% lower fuel consumption" compared to the 773ER. "Game changer" and "can't get more of them fast enough" are the phrases being used up and down the management chain.

Caveat: didn't get down to the details of what precisely was being compared.

[crazycrab955]

The word is that the 359 has so far given them "better than 25% lower fuel consumption" compared to the 773ER. "Game changer" and "can't get more of them fast enough" are the phrases being used up and down the management chain.

Caveat: didn't get down to the details of what precisely was being compared.

It strikes me as strange to compare such different types. The 773ER is substantially larger. I assumed a more relevant comparison would have been to the older 772s that the A359 is replacing.

But given SIA's love affair with Airbus at the moment, I assume they are seeing everything through French-coloured glasses.

[jaywell]

But given SIA's love affair with Airbus at the moment, I assume they are seeing everything through French-coloured glasses.

It's not only SQ that have a preference to Airbus now. A lot of airlines that were previously only Boeing (AA and DL for example) have bought Airbuses in the past couple years. They provide airlines a safe, reliable, and economical product. Boeing on the other hand has had many problems over the past decade. It's not hard to see why the American company has to lay off over 4000 employees.

From a customers perspective, Airbus trumps Boeing as well. Although this varies and boils down to how a particular airline configures their planes, Airbuses for some reason on all the airlines I've flown on turn out to be far more comfortable than the equivalent Boeing.

[leops1984]

It's not only SQ that have a preference to Airbus now. A lot of airlines that were previously only Boeing (AA and DL for example) have bought Airbuses in the past couple years. They provide airlines a safe, reliable, and economical product. Boeing on the other hand has had many problems over the past decade. It's not hard to see why the American company has to lay off over 4000 employees.

From a customers perspective, Airbus trumps Boeing as well. Although this varies and boils down to how a particular airline configures their planes, Airbuses for some reason on all the airlines I've flown on turn out to be far more comfortable than the equivalent Boeing.

Airbus has something of a seat width advantage (almost) across the board. A320s have wider seats than 737s, A350s wider than 787s, and A380s wider than 777s. The only way to get wider seats on Boeings if they're configured in the exceedingly rare 8-across 787 or 9-across 777. But otherwise, you are likely to end up with a wider seat on an Airbus than on the comparable Boeing (LCCs excepted).

[crazycrab955]

They provide airlines a safe, reliable, and economical product. Boeing on the other hand has had many problems over the past decade. It's not hard to see why the American company has to lay off over 4000 employees.

Are you seriously arguing that Boeing does not provide airlines a safe, reliable, and economical product?

Also, given that Boeing's order backlog stretches well into the next decade, I think it is a bit silly to say that laying off 4000 people indicates a death spiral.

Anyway, I didn't mean to start an Airbus fanboy war. Was just surprised that SQ would compare the A359 to a type it is not meant to replace (and, frankly, does not really compete with in the market).

[crazycrab955]

A380s wider than 777s

Not on the upper deck, which is where SQ J is installed.

[leops1984]

Not on the upper deck, which is where SQ J is installed.

Ah, true. But I was thinking of Y and the main deck - there, the 10-across A380 soundly beats the increasingly common 10-across 777.